Nick Foligno is ready to make his home-ice debut for the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night against the Utah Mammoth.
The 38-year-old veteran acknowledged that he might stay with his younger brother and new teammate, 34-year-old Marcus Foligno, while he acclimates to his new team. But don’t expect that to be the case for long.
“I’ll get my own place. He’s got his own family,” said Nick Foligno, whom the Wild acquired last Friday from the Chicago Blackhawks. “I’ll want to see my nieces more than I want to see Marcus anyway.
“But I’ll make sure I get over there and babysit a few times.”
Uncle Nick has a few things to take care of before his babysitting shifts.
Minnesota will start a four-game homestand with the game against Utah in Saint Paul, Minn. The Wild have earned at least one point in each of their past three games and are coming off a 3-2 shootout loss against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.
Wild coach John Hynes said he wants to see more of the same from his players, who have a 2-0-1 record in the past three contests.
“We wish we could have got the two points, but I like the week that we had,” Hynes said after the most recent game. “We had Tampa, we had Vegas, we had (Colorado). I thought all three games, we put a game on the ice that gives us a chance to win. We got five out of six points.
“I think certain parts of our game got tested, which we can learn from, but I think there are lots of parts of our game that I thought were really strong when you’re playing against real strong opponents.”
Utah will play on short rest after losing 3-2 in overtime to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night. Dylan Guenther and Barrett Hayton scored one goal apiece for the Mammoth.
Utah has notched at least one point in each of its past four games. The team is 3-0-1 during that span and has outscored opponents 13-9.
Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said he was glad that his team earned one point in Chicago.
“That’s huge,” Tourigny said. “I think that’s the point here. We didn’t play our ‘A’ game, but we found a way to get a point on the road. Now we have a big game (Tuesday), and we need to get more points.”
Both teams are in playoff position.
The Wild (85 points) hold the third spot in the Central Division. The Mammoth (73 points) are the top wild card in the Western Conference, six points better than the No. 2 wild-card team, the Seattle Kraken.
Minnesota likely will start Filip Gustavsson in goal on Tuesday. He is 23-10-6 with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage this season, and he is 1-2-0 with a 4.29 GAA and an .862 save percentage against the Mammoth.
Utah likely will turn to Karel Vejmelka in net one night after Vitek Vanecek started against the Blackhawks. Vejmelka is 30-16-2 with a 2.64 GAA and an .899 save percentage this season, and he is 8-3-1 with a 2.49 GAA and a .918 save percentage in 13 career games against Minnesota.
This will be the third and final game of the regular season between the teams. Utah has won the first two games of the series — 6-2 on the road on Oct. 25 and 5-2 on Feb. 27 in Salt Lake City.
